Drug smugglers, fraudsters and burglars all feature on April 2018's list of the most despicable criminals to be locked up in Croydon and south London.

All of the people on list will be serving considerable time for their crimes, after pleading or being found guilty at court.

The people locked up in April include two members of a criminal gang who conspired to import millions of pounds worth of cocaine through Gatwick Airport.

There was also a fraudster who tried to claim money by saying members of her family died in the Grenfell Tower fire, when she didn't live there at all.

Preetam Mungrah and Michael Sutherland

Preetam Mungrah (left) and Michael Sutherland (right)

Preetam Mungrah, 43, and Michael Sutherland, 48, were jailed after being found guilty of their roles in a gang which managed to get at least £16 million worth of cocaine and cannabis through Heathrow Airport.

The criminal network used corrupt baggage handlers to smuggle more than 100 kilos of cocaine and 44 kilos of cannabis.

An 18-month investigation led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), with support from Border Force and Heathrow Airport, brought an end to the drug operation in December 2016.

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Mungrah, of Woodville Road, Thornton Heath who acted as an intermediary between other members of the gang, was found guilty of importing cocaine and cannabis, and was jailed for 13 years and six months.

Sutherland, of Sunnybank Road, South Norwood, who was partly in charge of drug importations and onward distribution was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine and possessing crack cocaine, and was jailed for 20 years.

Darren Gartell

Darren Gartell, a serial burglar from Stonewell Avenue, New Addington was jailed on April 9 for breaking into convenience stores in Surrey and West Sussex. Gartell was sentenced to three years and two months in prison.

The 36-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to break-ins at Bobby's Convenience store, on the junction of Newchapel Road and Plaistow Street, in Lingfield, on August 10, 2017, and the Select Convenience store, on Pollards Oak Road, in Hurst Green, on December 12, 2017.

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But he had denied causing actual bodily harm (ABH) to a man at Bobby's Convenience Store on the same date as the burglary there.

He also pleaded not guilty to conspiring with others to burgle Martin McColl's in East Grinstead Road, Lingfield, on December 14 and the Co-op store in Station Road, Crawley Down, West Sussex on December 31, both in 2017.

A jury found him guilty of the three additional charges and he was handed the following sentences on April 9, all of which are to run concurrently:

Three years for the Select Convenience Store burglary

Three years for the Bobby's Convenience Store burglary

Three years and two months for the McColl's conspiracy to burgle charge

Three years and two months for the Co-op conspiracy to burgle charge

Four months for the ABH

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Carl Brown

Carl Brown has been jailed for three years (Image: Met Police)

18-year-old Carl Brown was sentenced to a total of three years in prison on April 4 after pleading guilty to possession on a firearm and ammunition and possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Brown, of Headcorn Road, Thornton Heath, was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on Wednesday, April 4.

He also received an 18-month sentence, to be served consecutively, for breaching a suspended sentence imposed at Lewes Crown Court in January.

Detectives had linked Brown to an Instagram post, which showed a man in a balaclava dancing and rapping while holding two suspected firearms, believed to be a shotgun and a handgun.